As Porton Down now confirm, here is a straightforward lie from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a lie that British diplomats around the world have been promoting to foreign governments.
The key point is that the FCO knew it was lying. This was published six days after I was told by an FCO source, and published, that Porton Down scientists were refusing to say the substance came from Russia. The FCO knew this.
I have now received confirmation from a well placed FCO source that Porton Down scientists are not able to identify the nerve agent as being of Russian manufacture, and have been resentful of the pressure being placed on them to do so. Porton Down would only sign up to the formulation “of a type developed by Russia” after a rather difficult meeting where this was agreed as a compromise formulation. 16 March 2018
There has to be some kind of redress for this. If we accept that we live in a society where the public bodies that are supposed to serve us, can lie to us and to the world in order specifically to heat up a cold war, then the future is bleak. This is a direct consequence of the lack of suitable punishment for those involved in the crime of creating lies to wage aggressive war on Iraq, particularly Tony Blair, Richard Dearlove and John Scarlett. As they are not in jail, Boris is confident he will not be either.
We have learned nothing from the Iraq War experience, and what is most disheartening is that officials within the FCO and security services still do not see it as their job to prevent lies rather than to propagate them when asked by a Minister.
Here is a screenshot of a FCO video showing Laurie Bristow, British Ambassador to Russia, in Moscow telling outright lies to gathered diplomats at a briefing there. The subtitle is accurate.
I have long held the opinion that Bristow is a deeply repulsive individual with no morals or scruples. When I was sacked as British Ambassador to Tashkent for criticising Uzbekistan’s human rights record and objecting to MI6 use of intelligence from the Uzbek torture chambers, Bristow went to Tashkent after my removal to assure the Uzbeks that the UK had no interest in human rights and wished to continue “intelligence cooperation”. That somebody like Bristow can become one of Britain’s most senior Ambassadors says all you need to know about the United Kingdom today.
Please don’t conflate this to Iraq.
May didn’t have Trump the way Bush had Blair for breakfast and the scale is a bit off.
The similarity with Iraq is that government and intelligence services lie. That is all, and is enough.
Quite correct.
Another similarity is that the general public probably thought that the government was lying from the start.
However, what is unique is that a former top civil servant is prepared to worry, like a terrier, at the government story until the government starts to crack under denouement.
It could become like Iraq. This is how it all starts. It’s just a foundation.
Yet sadly people cheerfully hop on a bandwagon where the implicit assumption is those lies are acceptable and for our own good despite all evidence to the contrary.
Porton down cannot id chemical source. And so they fall back. Porton down was never expected to ID chemical source (despite numerous public claims). What he meant to say etc… So instead now we’ll have other evidence. Secret obviously. We can’t possible compromise our intelligence gathering and as such ‘no’ you won’t get to see it. (case sealed for 50 years, good night).
Somewhat interestingly you’ll have noted that at no point has anyone actually confirmed what this particular compound discovered really was. Something of an oddity.
Is it A-234 as published in Vil’s book? (C8H18FN2O2P) which just so happens to have been filed in NIST98 and is remarkably similar to GV (C6H16FN2O2P) or is it novichok-7 (A-234) as reported prior to the publication of vil’s book as being C5H8Cl2F2NO3P.. and obviously before the UK and US decided the discussion of Vil’s formula should be discouraged?
Even stranger still is the reconciliation of Vil Mirzanov’s description of the idea behind the compound program with the printed compound formula considering the idea was undetectable binary compounds using non prescribed precursors and one of the precursors utilised by Iran in the manufacture of their samples was DF.
Weird eh?
First, congratulations and hats off to you Mr. Ambassador.
Second, yes the lies and they have common perception management themes: Iraq-Saddam is Hitler/WMD, Syria-Assad is Hitler/WMD. Russia-Putin is Hitler/WMD.
This is worse than Iraq. The Iraqis were essentially defenceless. Russia is not and an angry bear is not something to be trifled with.
That’s like saying punching a grown adult in the face is worse than punching a small child in the face. I do agree that the consequences of a war with Russia would be catastrophic for many more people, but restricting one’s self to instigating violence against those less able to defend themselves is not “better”.
Living under the May regime is like being trapped in a movie called “Carry On Governing”.
If the West attacks Russia there are two possible outcomes.
1. The West loses.
2. Everyone dies.
Which means they probably won’t, in the end.
Unless things have changed?
“By the time you got to the first Bush administration, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they came out with a national defense policy and strategic policy. What they basically said is that we’re going to have wars against what they called much weaker enemies and these have to be carried out quickly and decisively or else there will be embarrassment—a way of saying that popular reaction is going to set in. And that’s the way it’s been. It’s not pretty, but it’s some kind of constraint.”
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/03/noam-chomsky-populist-groundswell-u-s-elections-future-humanity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
That was bad but this ismuch worse than that. WW111 is/was looming with these psychopaths and their lies. Thank goodness Putin is not hot headed. There is also the dangerous occupant of the White House to put into the equation. What has he got to say about these disclosures and denouements as the lies unravel, thanks mainly to Craig? Nobody else is standing above the parapet with Craig.
Abscesses containing poisons need lancing. Otherwise, septicaemia sets in.
PS The PTB in NHS England have renamed ‘septicaemia’ as ‘sepsis’. Why?
It rhymes with Isis.
Craig does sterling work he is far from alone in his efforts though.
http://syriapropagandamedia.org/
https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2018/04/01/update-to-briefing-note-doubts-about-novichoks/
https://www.youtube.com/user/ukcolumn
http://letthemconfectsweeterlies.blogspot.se/2018/03/skripal-down-memory-hole-mass.html
am an Avid reader of Craig’s work which is first class yet selection for the first eleven of the Non-Corporate Media would still be a tough job there is strength in depth, so many others for the corporate media to pretend do not exist.
I meant someone with a high profile like Craig’s although I admire the people you have mentioned and others.
Ben,
do find out what “intelligence” agency came up with the Iraqi WMD story! Here’s a good start: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/movie-plot-the-rock-inspired-mi6-sources-iraqi-weapons-claim-chilcot-report
Why do you keep protecting the American scum? Powell, a most corrupt Pentagon stooge for running the covert Iran-Contra war, lied about Iraq having WMD, and holding up a vial of its alleged chemical weapons while DCI George Tenet monitored his testimony behind his back.
and John Negroponte too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte
Negroponte was important as long as the covert government was training Contras. As I recall, it was being run out of the American Embassy in Honduros where John was the Ambassador.. By the time of the UN meeting, it was to get the Russians.
Yes indeed, THF.
Also much involved in Iran Contra was Roy Godson, the brother of the director of Policy Exchange, Dean Godson, who provided the recent platform in Bristol for our Defence Secretary, and a close pal of Michael Gove and other Tory neocons.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Roy_Godson
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Dean_Godson
Their US Labour attache father, Joe Godson, was a key ally of Hugh Gaitskell in the early years of the Cold War, at one point trying to get Nye Bevan expelled from the Labour party
http://powerbase.info/index.php/Joseph_Godson
I see Negroponte was the US ambassador to Iraq from 2004 to 2005. I wonder what he was doing there. Colin Powell is in the background at his swearing in ceremony.
@ Trowbridge H. Ford April 4, 2018 at 15:13
And Powell was the officer who tried to cover up the My Lai massacre, so he has plenty of ‘form’.
Ben, You are looking at this from the wrong end of the telescope.
With Iraq, we know what happened next because we are downstream on the timeline.
With this, we are still in (the equivalent of) the argument about whether or not WMDs exist.
Craig is absolutely correct to do so, in view of the many similar elements.
The key point for me is that Iraq established beyond any possibility of dispute that British government sources ought not to be treated as credible by default whereas, despite that, on this case our establishment media and even our political opposition (after a little ineffectual quavering by Corbyn) immediately lined up to toe the jingoist line out of fear of being smeared as unpatriotic. Only now, after the hard work has been done by people like Craig (and the inevitable vicious nastiness absorbed by them) are some of our cowardly establishment media and official political opposition types starting to ask the kinds of question, in the kinds of tones and attitudes, that they should have been asking from day 1.
It might be a bit different if it escalates now that the OPCW has shown itself to be useless again. We might be praying it only ends like Iraq at least we will not have to fear nuclear weapons flying around the globe.
You wrong, Ben, the implications may have been (still could be) more serious that were those of the WMD lie. There, it was a country impoverished by years of sanctions, easily beaten, here, it’s a country that has nukes, not that easily brought to her knees without taking us with them.
If the government gave Porton Down a sample of a nerve agent they knew came from Russia and Porton Down told the government the nerve agent used in Salisbury was made in the same place then they would be telling the government the nerve agent used in Salisbury was made in Russia.
But unless they themselves had obtained the sample from Russia they as scientists would not be able to say that in their report.
I think this was a trap. The US and U.K. knew about Novichoks but did not press for it to be banned by the OPCW in the hope that it would come in handy if used in a false flag for example. However they were overconfident and did not bank on the fact that Russia did not have novichoks, is my guess.
And before you say that our services are pure and would not do such a thing, it is very well known secret that in the US, the president does not always control the three branches of government and that the CIA and pentagon may have thier own policy and means to carry it out and force the hand of the president it carry out wishes which he does not explicitly give, what is known as plausible deniability.
@ SA April 4, 2018 at 16:49
Like the Gary Powers U2 incident, organised by the CIA to foil growing exploratory friendship links between the US and Russia.
Brilliant comment. It is more or less universally acknowledged, outside Britain of course, that we are the most corrupt country in the developed world.
And we are run by those that cannot be criticised, God’s chosenites
@ Paedo Hunter April 4, 2018 at 16:14
This should be up your street, given the monicker…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiOXvCvfkaY
You have to admire the complete impartiality and fair-mindedness of the UK representatives on OPCW.
UK Delegation OPCW @UK_OPCW
Russia’s proposal for a joint, UK/Russian investigation into the Salisbury incident is perverse. It is a diversionary tactic, and yet more disinformation designed to evade the questions the Russian authorities must answer.
10:10 AM – Apr 4, 2018
Their identity is concealed in this impenetrable website.
https://www.opcw.org/about-opcw/
SE
The site is searchable but today’s documents may not yet be available. U.K. representative is Peter Wilson and the speeches by various delegates are in pdf files from the meeting of 15th March
https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/EC/87/en/UK_Statement_EC-87.pdf
Sharp Ears, quite right. I cannot see how Russia can answer any ‘questions’ when it hasn’t been provided with any evidence on which to base a reply to them.
The somewhat elusive Aitkenhead 16.25 video is now on here. On full screen, he looks even more sweaty. Hope someone is looking out for him.
Salisbury nerve agent attack: ‘Perverse’ call for joint UK-Russian investigation
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons met today at Moscow’s request to discuss the nerve agent attack.
12:56, UK,
Wednesday 04 April 2018
https://news.sky.com/story/salisbury-nerve-agent-attack-uk-and-us-staged-poisoning-russian-spy-chief-claims-11316209
Sharp Ears, That still misses out the bit at the end, that Craig for some reason is particularly interested in, when the camera cuts to a different position. What’s posted is just more sweat.
Actually, it does include the bit that Craig is interested in at around 8 minutes.
A big thank you is in order! This apparently is a 16 minute clip. We should all pour over this, because I think there are more telling clues in it. Btw. I’ve got the clip downloaded for eternity 😉
The guy is such an ignoramus, he twice refers to contamination with the nerve agent as “infection.” Or is he trying to up the scare factor. Yikes, the stuff could multiply and spread and kill us all.
“Hope someone is looking out for him.” As a Brit, I always want to ask, Why, is he missing? Or is he likely to attack us? Funny, I’d always pictured the prolific and interesting Sharpie as a sort of home-counties-middle-aged-lady type (oops, sorry, write 100x “Must BPC”) with a name something like Mary or Elizabeth and pruning the roses occupying her time in between valuable research and reporting. Never would have suspecting that she (or he perhaps) was from Yoo-Ess.
Thank you. A much more complete interview. It appears not to have been edited and the CEO shows his true professional form. Stating clearly what PD has done and that it continue to work with other “sources” to investigate further. He also emphasises that the Police are the leaders in the investigation of the incident.
Will there be such information becoming from the Met Police?
This is happening all over again and yet where is the opposition? Where’s Labour and even more to the point , Where’s the SNP in all of this. Surely Sturgeon and Blackford have got the memo by now!
Blackford should hang his head in shame.
Lol
You expect politicians to show some balls?
Corbyn is the only voice of reason. However, as usual, the media are more interested in Corbyn bashing than printing his very rational view of the situation. I think, for what it’s worth, the Press demonisation of Corbyn being ever present even dragging up accusations of anti-semitism over comments made about a mural 6 years ago, Corbyn might as well go large out there, make a loud noise, challenge his own MPs and get some attention for his views. Press will always demonise him but he might as well use that to promote his eminently sensible views and policies.
Another statement that Bristow made, on 22 March, is contradicted by the facts:
“Russia has also claimed that the UK has not followed its legal obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, especially Article 9. This is simply not true. The Chemical Weapons Convention makes clear that the UK has the right to lead our own response, engaging the OPCW and others as appropriate. The 10-day window for consultations Russia refers to is a right, our right, not an obligation. ”
But this is what the OPCW’s Article 9 says:
“A State Party which receives a request from another State Party for clarification of any matter which the requesting State Party believes causes such a doubt or concern shall provide the requesting State Party as soon as possible, but in any case not later than 10 days after the request, with information sufficient to answer the doubt or concern raised along with an explanation of how the information provided resolves the matter.”
I’m no lawyer, but I’m fairly sure that the word ‘shall’ here means ‘must’, not ‘may’.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/british-ambassador-to-russia-briefing-on-the-salisbury-attack-22-march-2017 (The date given is wrong, should be 2018)
https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/articles/article-ix-consultations-cooperation-and-fact-finding/
I’m thankful that we have independent bloggers holding the government to account. However, the vast bulk of the media in this country has become, as John Pilger observed, a propaganda machine. Our sitting government appears to be allowed to blatantly lie on every political issue of the day with impunity! I believe that they’re free to do so in order to demoralise the ordinary citizens of this nation and turn us against democracy. How often I’ve heard; “They’re all liars! There’s no point in voting!”
I have for years been banging on about the goal of predatory capitalism, which is to kill democracy! Blair was intent on killing debate, which in turn, kills democracy. I often heard; “They’re all the same! No point in voting!” His “Third Way”, with “triangulation” wasn’t to garner votes, it was to stifle debate. But Corbyn scuppered that plan! Now we resort to constant lying!
Keep up the pressure!!
I have for years been banging on about the goal of predatory capitalism, which is to kill democracy!
I disagree. Democracy has been the PTB’s preferred means of controlling populations since the British aristocracy ‘transferred’ their power to the people and avoided a French-style revolution. All they have to do is control the electoral choices – easy when you control the media too.
What’s the first thing the West did after overthrowing Gadaffi?* They made Libya a democracy. I’m pretty sure they didn’t go to all that trouble just to give the Libyan people the power to choose their own government.
* They didn’t even wait till they’d overthrown him before they established a central banking system, which is the other essential requirement for controlling a nation. Democracy controls the people, Central banking controls the economy.
Teresa May and Boris should resign over this lie-caught actions!
Jim, concisely put. Very worrying but I do agree with you that the goal of predatory capitalism is to kill democracy. From where I am sitting in my humble viewpoint, there is almost an outright fascist state in the USA and there is creeping fascism around the world in the form of extremely right wing Governments, including Israel I might add. Truth is now a rare commodity in Governments around the world. I don’t think propagation of right wing propaganda has been so persistent, widespread and all pervasive as it has been in recent years around the world. People point the finger of propaganda at communist or socialist governments but, their propaganda is nothing at all in the scale of the extreme right wing propaganda today and in so called democracies too. The Skripal poisoning case is a good example. Not one mainstream newspaper has dared to even do some digging and investigative journalism on this, the general public seem to be so much more adept at it than our own Press Corp.
An important aspect of this process is that, if Craig Murray were not available as a resource, we would all be none the wiser: or, at least, it would be very much more difficult to get at the facts (or to have access to a coherent alternative viewpoint, if you are not convinced that Murray is offering us facts).
I am minded to ask: is this an unusual occurrence, or is this the kind of thing that goes on all the time, falsehoods and media manipulation behind the veil of the Official Secrets Act, and without a contact with a direct line into the government department involved nobody would know the difference? The Civil Service certainly don’t seem to be that bothered.
J
” is this an unusual occurrence, or is this the kind of thing that goes on all the time, falsehoods and media manipulation behind the veil of the Official Secrets Act, and without a contact with a direct line into the government department involved nobody would know the difference? ”
I’m sure you are asking this as an ironic question to which you know the answer.
It is, of course, “Business as Usual”
The British regime is a conspiracy against the people in the interests of the plutocracy.
Lying – and any other reprehensible activity is just what they do!
“The British regime is a conspiracy against the people in the interests of the plutocracy.”
Nothing specially British about this. It’s how Western “Democracy” will always work, unless there’s a successful peasants’ revolt: a most unlikely eventuality. It’s the anti-nationalist globalist way.
The question you should ask is which organisations you can actually work at senior levels for WITHOUT spying.
I was spied on by two management consultancies (one with links to Langley, one to MI6) who for some reason as employers had access to my credit/debit card transactions. Lloyds TSB had rather too many spying on its customers for my liking. VC fund managers got training from US spying agencies and had me tagged around Leeds of an evening. London medicine is a veritable vipers nest of those who put spying before the emotional health of those they spy on. Most public schools have plants to set up a pipeline of credulous recruits.
And that is before we start looking at head teachers, sales directors, politicians, University Professors and the Wellcome Trust…..
Weapons of Mass Deception
The Foreign Office are claiming that they did not lie and that Johnson did not lie and the corporate media are taking these absurd denials seriously. Channel 4 has fact-checked this issue and is clearly not persuaded that Johnson or the Foreign Office lied. Indeed, the conclusion Channel 4 comes to is that it is not significant, as the chemistry was only one part of the government’s intelligence.
news/factcheck/did-boris-johnson-lie-about-porton-downs-evidence-against-russia
Even those who think Johnson didn’t lie might consider whether he should resign for being clumsy in such a sensitive matter. No hope of a resignation though when even Vince cable is not criticising Boris. However if the powers that be aren’t by then into ballot-rigging Labour may have got an extra per cent at the coming local elections
Sometimes it’s even worse when the opposition demands something. The government may even give up actions that they were planning to do just so they don’t look like they are doing what the opposition wants and giving them “a win”.
That’s a remarkable conclusion for Channel 4 (or anybody) to have managed to reach. The FCO tweet quoted by Craig above is clearly false – the Porton Down experts have now confirmed that they did not and could not have “made clear that this was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced in Russia”. The best that could be claimed about it is that it was an innocent error that just happened to support the line desired by the FCO, which relies upon a judgement (and a rather generous one, to say the least) about the integrity of the FCO.
As for Johnson, he outright declared that the Porton Down experts specifically told him it was made in Russia – not that he’d concluded as much from other evidence. The only viable alternative to barefaced lying would be gross incompetence.
Craig Murray is a true hero to this country. Most of us, including myself would have been none the wiser . No wonder the desperation to get RT closed down.
exactly graeme…
t does beg the question, yet again: whither that “famous” British sense of decency and fair play? Or was that too just one more propaganda tool and fabrication of the British media? It is certainly referenced little enough in the world beyond the Anglosphere, where dishonesty, double standards and hypocrisy have always been the most readily identified British traits from time immemorial.
I had never heard of that before moving to the UK.
Frankywiggles
“ British sense of decency and fair play? “
This much touted phrase as well as things like “our values” and American exceptionalism are just so much of national folklore propaganda. With a history steeped in colonialism that continues to guide our government’s actions to this day , do you really believe this?
good question to ask theresa may and boris johnson… they don’t have a shred of it..
In 53 years of being a UK subject, decency and fair play have never been visible in how my life has panned out. Never ending bulshit, oblique threats and useless blowhards trashing you to crush you, yes.
But decency? Fair play?
Decency when Already brought to my knees. Fair play when no contest was being fought.
But if you actually tried to achieve something real? Crush and destroy was the only consistent British trait…..
Boris failing so spectacularly will probably once again be career-enhancing. It’s the story of his life.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/02/boris-johnson-white-privilege-black-woman
I saw a tweet saying that the FCO deleted that last night, yet on the BBC News at 1 pm today,
Liam Fox was still saying:
“we’ve identified the agent as being a Russian military-grade nerve agent,
we know that Russia has been stockpiling amounts of this…”
https://twitter.com/BardenGridge/status/981537202495721472
In the news at 3 pm, that line was omitted when they showed the same clip of Fox.
He launched straight in with “we know that Russia has been stockpiling amounts of this…”
https://twitter.com/BardenGridge/status/981538246030225408
Why didn’t HMG come up with this at the outset?
Somebody tell the little shyster to keep up. Ask him if Werrittty is OK and how’s Jesme?
Foreign Office forced to admit it DELETED tweet falsely claiming Porton Down confirmed nerve agent was ‘produced in Russia’
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-accused-misleading-public-12302193#ICID=sharebar_twitter
O/T and not. There is an almighty crescendo above me in the skies, I can’t see the manoeuvres, too much cloud cover, but the high screaming noises point to tight curves being flown, by at least two jets at the time, but boy are they doing it today, must have been away for Easter.
I can’t understand that Labour is not starting to get interested in defending our football fans in Russia.
Should Putin ban all English ( and maybe French) fans?, just to keep the riff raff drunks out and minimise the chances for mischief makers and agent provocateurs entering a sporting event, not to speak of the possible flashpoints that could arise after Mrs. Mays, Bojo’s and young Gavins special brand of diplomacy, or should one call it dangerous verbal diarrhoea, they have, collectively with the MSM and BBC, poisoned the atmosphere for football fans, I mean somebody has to feel responsible for the safety of our fans and handing out gas masks to them, as they board the plane would not go down as caring. So what can Putin really do about it? I mean the teams should still play but this whole shit storm should really not be played out on the public.
One thing that strikes me about Bristow iafter seeing him a few time commenting, , that he seems to have notes, writes them down beforehand, his eyes are trained downwards when he recites what he’s been given, he appears cagey and weasel y. he does not do eye contact likely.
The fans will be OK. They are well infitrated by the heavy boys from MI5/6, Special Branch and psychos from the Hereford countryside.
If this was a “military grade nerve agent”, how were the Skripals able to walk around Salisbury for four and a half hours after the initial contact at their home?
To me, this is the biggest flaw in the official conspiracy theory.
Don’t forget the policeman who has survived. It’s clearly a miracle bearing in mind there is no known antidote to this agent and it is supposed to kill in minutes with only a micro-bead of exposure.
I think Chief Inspector Bailey should be rewarded for his sterling performance.
@ Monster April 4, 2018 at 16:41
Maybe an Oscar?
The strangest part is that several hours after being exposed to a military grade chemical weapon they were still able to put away a two course lunch!
I think the question not asked is why salisbury?
Could this be because it is very close to Aldershot and Porton Down?
Does the UK also have the same nerve agent stockpiled there?
Just curious 🙂
“I think the question not asked is why salisbury?”
Because that’s where Sergei Skripal lived.
How close do you think it is to Aldershot?
There also appear to be flaws in the court decision, including failure to address provisions in a bilateral consular treaty. We also have failure to look into the concerns of relatives and even blocking access. Russophobic hysteria seems to have resulted in Russians in general being regarded as unworthy of decent treatment. http://johnhelmer.net/yulia-skripal-is-not-allowed-to-telephone-her-grandmother/
In her statement to the Commons of 12th Match Teresa May gave as a reason for Russia’s culpability
“our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so.”
not ‘is still doing so’ but ‘would still be capable of doing so’.
According to this ‘capacity to produce this agent’ is sufficient circumstantial evidence to assume guilt.
Presumably the government would claim that since 12th March they have come into intelligence that the Russians are still producing this.
This needs some careful questioning.
Where’s the medical evidence? What about a Detective Sergeant who made a miraculous recovery? What about the doctor who treated the Skipals who wasn’t effected??? Sounds like the shittest Military Grade Nerve Agent ever!!! It’s clearly bollocks but the main issue here is that the media controls the thoughts and opinions of most of Western society. Nothing!!! Absolutely Nothing! has been learned from 2003, with Blair, Straw Bush and the rest of them. Here’s the masses almost immediately off down the same road again without even questioning it. Remember Colin-Powell holding his bag of white powder at the UN which was probably a bag of George Bush’s Dandruff, but it achieved the objective of allowing the invasion of another country illegally and setting the Middle East ablaze! Where the hell is the opposition! Labour?? SNP ??? Where are they? This must be called out or we as a society are finished forever!
Graeme,
I share your distress, but might suggest that a great deal *has* been learned from the Iraq WMD story, including the weakness of the civil-society response, the near-absence of mainstream-media dissent, the ease with which the justice system and courts can be pressed into service, and the ultimate lack of political accountability. And this time they have Germany and France on-side, and the OPCW will be far less troublesome than the UN weapons inspectors and sanctions enforcers ever were. What they appear to have learned is that this gets easier all the time. Gulf of Tonkin, Operation Gladio, Operation Hades, Iraqis bayonetting Kuwaiti babies in their incubators, WMDs to the north, south, east or west of Tikrit. It’s become so easy that even a band of incompetents with a home chemistry kit can nearly pull one off. They may yet.
Good shout on the Gulf of Tonkin incident, also don’t forget the other False flag (that didn’t work) that also funnily enough happened under US SoD Robert McNamara.. the USS Liberty Incident!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
Well said
No one was affected by a ‘nerve agent poison’?
‘ . . . he began his letter to the Times . . . with;“may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury” ‘
“ The Times published a letter from Stephen Davies (Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust) on the 16th March. ‘Sir, further to your report (‘Poison Exposure Leaves Nearly 40 needing Treatment’), may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning. Several people have attended the emergency department concerned that they may have been exposed. None has had symptoms of poisoning and none has needed treatment. Any blood tests performed have shown no abnormality. No member of the public has been contaminated by the agent involved.’ ”
Oh dear. Poor old BoJO hasn’t worked out very well at the FCO.
Maybe Mrs May should go back to her shorlist and check out the other presenters of HIGNFY. May I suggest Jo Brand. She’s a clever lass!
Very good to eee you on Sky News at 16:15, Craig.
Anyone able to link it here?
And at 15:47 on Andrew Sparrow’s Politics Live blog on The Guardian here:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/apr/04/labour-criticises-boris-johnson-over-his-porton-downnovichok-claims-as-opcw-meets-politics-live
Getting pretty mainstream now, Craig!
Craig Murray just got quoted in full on the Guardian live column, catch it while you can.
Thank you for an excellent blog post. I think it was obvious to anyone that those analysing the chemistry of a poison would not be able to identify where it came from.
So the more interesting question is why were the politicians so quick to want to place the blame (on the obvious culprit)? Is it anything beyond the wish to manage the news cycle?
And as your blog highlights, why are the career diplomats not more forceful in pushing back, given that they will have to live with the consequences (as post Iraq and post Libya has shown) long after their political masters have departed the scene?
Another one who has knelt before Her Majesty (or perhaps one of the minions).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pepper
Omitted from this entry is that he was made chair of DTSLin July 2014. Why have not he and the board come out in support of Aitkenhead, who has obviously been set up as the fall guy.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-chairman-of-the-dstl-board From GCHQ to DTSL Nice.
Chosen and placed. The rest of them.
— Gerard Connell
— Sir David Grant CBE
— Professor Dame Wendy Hall
— Mark Preston
— Jeremy Monroe
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/defence-science-and-technology-laboratory/about/membership
‘Since the Skripal poisoning at the beginning of March, Russian media have repeatedly claimed that the nerve agent used against Skripal and his daughter was developed in the UK. Russia’s propaganda machine has even put out stories claiming the UK not only continues to develop chemical weapons, but is even building new production facilities for the manufacture of chemical weapons.
Sir David Pepper, the chairman of Porton Down’s board told the BBC that such claims are complete nonsense. “This is a defensive organization. And we know that the Russians have been suggesting that certain buildings are for making chemical warfare and that’s just complete rubbish” Pepper said.’
https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-uk-s-secret-weapons-lab-chief-confirms-chemical-weapons-development/
DSTL even or Dstl as they put it.
Caught the end of your Skyy interview, boy did she like to interrupt you. She was very amateurish in that aspect.
I watched it and agree with you, also they didn’t like Craig’s comments on the tagged/edited on bit with their interview with the Porton Down head.
did I hear right that sky news doesn’t own a dolly to move camera’s on and the change of camera position was due to using two camera’s?
so they can afford to use two camera’s for an interview but don’t own a dolly for easy moving of a camera?
It’s unravelling as any reasonably sensible observer could see it would.
Thanks to Brexit we have the weakest government, certainly for decades, and probably for centuries. So expect more of these farcical episodes to emerge.
Spot on Craig, as usual! And we are led to believe we are on the right side of history??? I despair. Boris Johnson prances around the world stage as a standup comedian, spouting lazy lies and provoking international anger wherever he goes. The fact that he is ALLOWED to do so is perverse. Russian politics is predictable, UK politics is ridiculous.